Loading machine



R. P. GREENLEAF Aug.- 27, 1929.

' LoADNG MACHINE Filed March 14, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 61H01 nu; S

R. P. GREENLEAF Aug. 27, 1929;

LOADING MACHINE Filed March 14, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet Patented Aug. 42'?, 1929.

UNITE@ Sr'lA'lS PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT P. GREENLEAF, OF SHAKER HEIGHTS, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO FRANK BILLINGS,

' OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

LOADING- MACHINE.

Application filed March 14, 1925. Serial No. 15,441. Y

This invention relates to loading machines adapted particularly for loading coal in mines, Aor other material which may be in lump form, or in both relatively .line and lump form.

One of the principal objects of the invention is to provide a loading machine of this character, which is more practical than those used or tried out heretofore. That is to say, it is one of the objects to provide a machine which will effectively load the material, including the large lumps encountered in practice, and which is simple in construction and contains no parts which are liable to get out of order or which will require frequent adjustment, as is the case with prior machines.

A further object is to provide a machine which is capable of being forced into a pile of material, and which is provided with a digging member so constructed that the material will be picked up and conveyed rearwardly or rearwardly and upwardly with a minimum amount of disturbance, and with very little dropping, churning', breakage and abrasion of the material, and with little likelihood of the machine becoming clogged.

The above and other objects are attained by this invention which may be here briefly summarized as consisting in certain novel details of construction, and combinations and arrangements of parts which will be described in the specification and set forth in the appended claims.

ln the accompanying sheets of drawings wherein l have shown the preferred embodi ment, F ig. 1 is a side elevation of a loading machine equipped with my invention; F ig. 2 is a top plan view of the same; Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the lower or digging end on an enlarged scale, parts being broken away; Fig. 4 is a view on a still larger scale, partly in elevation and partly in section, along the line 4 1 of F ig. 3; and Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of one of the digging blades and of a portion of one of the sprocket chains attached thereto.

The machine herein illustrated in so far as many of the details are concerned, suoli as the details of drive, the number of conveyers and their arrangement, are immaterial to the present invention, the important features of the invention residing in the form and construction of what may be termed the digging part of the machine.

In the construction shown, the machine includes a frame or body 10, which is preferably supported on a truck of the endless belt tractor type, so that good traction will be had, suiiicient to enable the digging end of the machine to be forced into the material to be loaded, the endless track belts being indicated at 11. The latter may assume any desired form as to their mounting and manner of drive.

The digging and loading means involves an auxiliary frame 12, which is in an inclined position and extends downwardly and forwardly from a pivotal axis in the form of a shaft 13, this auxiliary frame being adapted for adjustment on extensions 10a of the main frame 10. Adjusting screws 14 are carried by the main frame 10, these screws engaging swinging nuts 15 on the sides of the auxiliary frame.

This auxiliary frame 12 is composed essentially of an inclined platform 12a, up along which the material .is adapted to be scraped, and sideboards 12b, to prevent the material dropping off laterally. In this instance the material after being moved up onto the platformis received into a conical shaped hopper 16, which is at the front of an auxiliary conveyer designated generally by the reference character 17. However, the use of an auxiliary conveyer is not essential to the invention. As illustrated, the rear part of this auxiliary conveyer is elevated so that a mine car 18 to be loaded, may be run underneath the discharge end as illustrated in Fig. 1. If an auxiliary conveyerl of this kind is employed, it is preferably laterally adjustable, in which event it may be swung about the axis of the conical hopper 16.

To support this auxiliary conveyer, and at the same time to permit it to be swung laterally so that cars at the side as Well-as immediately to the rear of the loading machine may be loaded, the main frame 10 is shown as provided with an arc-shaped supporting track 19 which is engaged by rollers 20 carried by the auxiliary conveyer.

As before stated, the digging member involves the auxiliary frame 12 having an inclined platform 12a.y Additionally it includes suitable means for picking up the material and moving it back along the inclined platform 12a. This latter means preferably includes a series of endless sprocket chains 21, three such chains being here shown, these being indicated conventionally in Figs. 1

and 2, and shown in detail in Figs. 3 and 4. Preferably these chains engage sprocket wheels 2:2, suitably supported at the upper and lower ends of the inclined platform 12u. The upper sprocket wheels are preferably on the shaft 13, which in practice will constitute the driving shaft, but the lower sprocket wheels, may, if desired, be replaced with rollers.

The digging means additionally includes a series of transverse, and preferably curved scoop-like blades 23, which are attached to all the chains 2l and extend practically the full width of the machine, as will be 'explained presently. These digging blades 23 which are in the form of rather rugged castings, may be attached to the chains in different ways, but preferably herein illustrated, they are provided with integral lilik extensions 23 which replace regular links of the chains 2l, and to these integral link extensions the adjoining links are pivetaliy connected. As herein illustrated, the link extensions 231 consist of pairs of ears projecting from the concave face 'of each digging blade 23, :the adjoining links forwardly thereof, i. e. in the direction the chain is traveling, being pinned to the free ends of these ears, and the following links projecting through suitable openings in the blades vand being also attached between the ears next to the concave face of the blade.

By attaching the blades in this manner, and by virtually causing them to form portions'of the chains they are held rigid, and as they pass down beneath and forwardly of the plzitform they occupy a position 'and take a. path which is most effective in getting un` der the pile of material with the least resistance and in scooping up the material so as to lift it onto the inclined platform 12a.

It will be noted by reference to Figs. 8 and 4, that the lower end of the inclined platform 12L is in the form of a casting 24, the lower end of which is rounded, and is substantially semi-cylindrical in form, as shown at 24 in Fig. il. rllhis portion 24' of the casting is curved about an axis coinciding with the axis of rotation of the lower sprockets 2Q, and the radius of curvature preferably coincides with the radius of the hubs of the lower sprockets, as indicated in Fig. 3. The purpose of this construction is to form a virtual sea-l with the inner longitudinal edges of the blades 23, which it will be noted, project inwardly .from the chains 2l as well as outwardly, and as the blades pass about the lower end of the Ainclined platform their inner edges are held in contact with, or close to the rounded end 2451 of the casting, the result being that while the blades are entering and scooping up the material, and are bringing it up onto the inclined platform, there is virtually a closed bottom or closed space between blades, this being formed largely by the rounded lower end of the casting, or by the casting and the lower end of the platform proper, which it will ,be observed from Fig. Ll, overlaps all but the extreme lower end of the casting and forms a continuation the rounded portion thereof.

The lower sprockets 22 are mounted upon a stationary shaft 25 which is secured in a suitable bore, or in bearing portions of the rounded lower end 24 of the casting 24. lt will be observed,l particularly by reference to Fig. 3, that the casting 211 is notched out to receive the lower sprockets 22, and likewise the blades are notched out where the link extensions 23a occur, to accommodate the sprockets and to permit the blades at their inner' longitudinal edges to hug or to extend close to the rounded end 2e of the casting.

lt is to be noted that the blades extend the full width, or substantially the full width of the casting 24 and of the inclined platform 12 which forms a continuation thereof, the end portions of the blades projecting beyond the two outermost sprockets 22, and overlapping the outer bearing portions of the fasting for shaft A25. rl`his is an important feature of the construction for the reason that it leaves no bearings or other stationary parts to obstruct the digging action of the blades or to prevent their entering the material either by reason of their travel around with the chains, or due -to the gradual advancing of the machine toward the material, or by the combined action of the two.

The eXtreme front end of the machine is therefore free to dig into the material without obstruction from the stationary part, the 'digging end of the machine in its width coinciding with the inner sides of the side-boards 12b, whose front ends terminate rearwardly of the digging end, as shown. Additionally these side-boards at their front ends are tapered in two directions, i. e. are tapered upwardly and rearwardly and also laterally so as to minimize liability of clogging or jamming as large lumps are deposited onto the inclined platform 12a.

The above constitute the essential features of the present invention, which as already4 stated, can be embodied in loading machines, many of the details of which can be modified as desired. lt will be Aunderstood that the main frame or body l0 will be provided with a suitable'source of power to propel the machine and to force the diggingY end into the material. ln this instance this power means consists of a suitable motor 26 which drives a longitudinally extending shaft 27 (see Figs. l and 2) this shaft being geared to a transverse shaft 28 which drives in any suitable fashion the driving wheels of the endless track belts 1l. Additionally as here shown, this shaft 27 drives a transverse shaft 29, which in turn is connected by chain and sprocket gearing to shaft 13, so as to drive the chains 2l forming a part of the digging mechanism, and this same shaft may, if desired, be connected to an additional transverse shaft 30 for rotating the screws 14 to adjust the height of the lower end of the auxiliary framelQ.

If desired, the same motor 26 may be utilized to drive the beltof the auxiliary conveyer, assuming that one is used, but in this instance I show a separate motor 3l, which is geared to a shaft driving a sprocket chain 32 for operating the beltor other endless means of the auxiliary conveyer.

In the use of the machine above described, the machine as a whole is slowly advanced as the digging and loading continues, the digging end being forced intothe material and the blades, which travel at a suitable rate compared with the forward travel of the entire machine slide or move under the material, pick it up and deposit it onto the inclined platform so that it will be carried by with the backward travel of the blades, the latter then acting as scrapers until the material leaves the upper end of the inclined plat-form. By reason of the features of construction, particularly at the digging end, the material is loaded rapidly and efficiently in the sense that there is little churning or disturbance of the material at the pile being loaded, and little breakage, thus attaining one of the main objects of the invention. It will be seen also that the second main object of the invention, i. e. the simplicity and durability, are attained to a high degree, the construction not only being simple but extremely rugged.

I do not desire to be confined to the exact details shown, but aim in my claims to cover all modifications which do not involve a departure from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having described my invention, I claim:

l. In an excavating and loading machine, a power operated movable structure having digging and conveying means comprising a platform having a rounded lower end adapted to be positioned close to the ground, endless means traveling about the same, and blades extending substantially the full width of the platform and attached to the endless means and adapted to lift the material onto the platform and to scrape the material rearwardly along the platform, the inner edges of said blades being contiguous to the rounded lower end of the platform while scooping up material and lifting the same onto the platform.

2. In an excavating and loading machine, a power operated movable structure having digging and conveying means including an inclined platform having a rounded lower end, endless sprocket chains extending about the platform, rotary chain-supporting members supported in the rounded lower end of the platform, and blades secured to the chains and extending across the platform, the ends of the blades overlapping the bearings or supports for the outermost rotary members, and the inner edges of the blades being held c close to the rounded lower end of the platform while picking up material, whereby said digging and conveying means is adapted to dig` a path into which the machine may progress. t

3. In a loading machine, a power operated movable structure having digging and conveying means including an inclined platform, endless sprocket chains extending about the platform, rotary chain-supporting members at the lower end of the platform, and blades secured to the chains and extending across the platform, the inner edges of the blades being contiguous to the lower end and top surface of the platform while picking up material and moving the same along the platform, both the platform and the blades being notched out to accommodate the rotary chain-supporting members.

4. In a loading machine, a power operated movable structure having digging and conveying means including an inclined platform, a series of endless sprocket chains traveling about the platform, rotary chain-sup porting members supported at the lower end of the platform, and blades secured to the chains and extending crosswise of the platform, the blades extending both inwardly and outwardly of the chains and having the inner portions notched out to accommodate the chain-supporting members.

5. In an excavating and loading machine, a power operated movable structure having digging and conveying means including an .inclined platform, a series of endless sprocket chains traveling about the platform, blades for lifting material onto the platform and for scraping material rearwardly thereof secured to the chains and extending crosswise of the platform, said blades having integral link extensions proj ect-ing therefrom and having openings adjacent said extensions through which portions of the chain may extend., and pivotal connections between said extensions and the forward and trailing links of the chain.

6. In an excavating and loading machine, a

vpower operated movable structure having digging and conveying means including an inclined platform, a series of endless sprocket chains traveling about the platform, blades for lifting material onto the platform and for scraping material rearwardly thereof extending crosswise of the platform, said blades being concavo-convex, chain links integral with said blades and projecting from the concave sides thereof, said blades being cut away adjacent each integral link so as to admit the Anext link from the convex side of the blade,

and a pivotal connection between said two links7 the axis of which is Within the concavity of the blade.

7. ln an excavating` and loading machine, a power operated movable structure having digging and conveying means including an inclined platform having a rounded lower end, endless sprocket chains extending about the platform, rotary chain supporting niembers supported in the rounded lower end. of the platform, and blades secured to the ychains and extending across the platform, the ends of the blades overlapping the bearings or supports for the outermost rotary members, the inner edges of the blades contacting said l rounded lower end as they travel about it.

8. In an excavating and loading machine,

a movable structure7 a digging and conveying means carried'thereby, comprising a plural ity of endless `chains traveling in parallel paths, transverse blades secured to the chains and extending laterally beyond the outermost chains, and a platform with a rounded forward end, said blades traveling forward underneath the platform over the rounded for- Ward end thereof and upwardly over the platform in Contact with the upper `surface thereof, whereby the blades are adapted to dig as Well as to 'convey material.

ln testimony whereof, I hereunto aflix `my signature.

ROBERT P. GREENLEAF. 

